Do you give notice if the horse has been sold??

Gosh OP, you are getting some flack.

I would feel the same as you. You were paying for a service and care of your horse. This wasn't up to standard. Did the YO ever contact you to say they were concerned as to the horse's condition.

Yes, according to the contract you would be liable for the 4 weeks notice. It depends on whether you are going to continue in the horse world or not!. If you are brave you could say that you are not going to pay because xxxx and wait to see what happens. Should the YO get round to taking you to court you could always pay before the crunch point. This is not something that I would usually say, but you are obviously miffed.

Maybe you could "negotiate" a hefty discount in view of the situation and then disappear, never to be seen again.
 
I would do the same as op and wouldn’t be paying I generally don’t know a decent yard owner who would expect pay of a extra month for someone who sold a horse to many yard owners think they can neglected a horse and not face the consequences.
 
you signed a contract. the neglect only seems to be an issue now because the horse is being sold and you want to terminate the contract without paying the extra month agreed. if the horse hadn't been sold for another two months presumably you would still have the horse on the yard?
 
The OP said she was trying to remove the horse, she couldn't so they have sold the horse at a huge financial loss to try and prevent further neglect. They didn't just leave the horse there and accept the situation, they took action. If you don't have your land and you cant find a new yard where exactly do you take your horse? And nothing on earth would get me to write a letter or make a serious complaint if I had nowhere to put the horse. Theres enough YOs that have tied horses to gates or dumped them at the owners house that that would be a really stupid thing to do.
 
Playing devils advocate, but there is only one yard near where I live that offers full livery, and it's over an hour away. There are other yards but they are all DIY, and the OPs circumstances may not have allowed for that (e.g. health problems). The vast majority of yards round here I would not choose to keep a horse in for safety reasons. There are parts of the country that are fairly poorly supplied with full livery yards.
 
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I'm Dun said:
The OP said she was trying to remove the horse, she couldn't so they have sold the horse at a huge financial loss to try and prevent further neglect. They didn't just leave the horse there and accept the situation, they took action. If you don't have your land and you cant find a new yard where exactly do you take your horse? And nothing on earth would get me to write a letter or make a serious complaint if I had nowhere to put the horse. Theres enough YOs that have tied horses to gates or dumped them at the owners house that that would be a really stupid thing to do.
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When did they say they tried to remove the horse? They have been trying to sell the horse for 6 months in a state of neglect.

What stopped them removing the horse to a different yard sorry I just don't buy that.
 
I'm Dun said:
The OP said she was trying to remove the horse, she couldn't so they have sold the horse at a huge financial loss to try and prevent further neglect. They didn't just leave the horse there and accept the situation, they took action. If you don't have your land and you cant find a new yard where exactly do you take your horse? And nothing on earth would get me to write a letter or make a serious complaint if I had nowhere to put the horse. Theres enough YOs that have tied horses to gates or dumped them at the owners house that that would be a really stupid thing to do.
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They did leave the horse there. What action was taken apart from selling the horse? How could they not find another yard if they are prepared to keep the horse up to 3 hours away? If I needed to move my horses for welfare reasons and I am prepared to keep them up to 3 hours away in any direction from where I live I would have the choice of loads of full livery yards and I could move them tomorrow. I appreciate the number of full livery yards varies in different parts of the country, but I cannot believe nowhere could be found given that the yard was 3 hours away; it’s not like having to find somewhere at short notice within 30 minutes of home, which is obviously more difficult. If OP had concerns for the welfare of the horse for over a month she should have paid closer attention so the horse did not end up in such poor condition. There is a lot to this story that does not add up.
 
Upthecreek said:
They did leave the horse there. What action was taken apart from selling the horse? How could they not find another yard if they are prepared to keep the horse up to 3 hours away? If I needed to move my horses for welfare reasons and I am prepared to keep them up to 3 hours away in any direction from where I live I would have the choice of loads of full livery yards and I could move them tomorrow. I appreciate the number of full livery yards varies in different parts of the country, but I cannot believe nowhere could be found given that the yard was 3 hours away; it’s not like having to find somewhere at short notice within 30 minutes of home, which is obviously more difficult. If OP had concerns for the welfare of the horse for over a month she should have paid closer attention so the horse did not end up in such poor condition. There is a lot to this story that does not add up.
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I agree I think its only now an issue because the owner doesn't want to pay the notice period livery, they were quite happy for the horse to stay there before it was sold knowing it was not being looked after properly.

At the end of the day the horse is your responsibility to maintain proper care regardless of what service you are paying for.
 
ycbm said:
With some of the replies on this thread you'd think it was illegal to put a horse on full livery and live hundreds of miles away, or abroad, or be too busy looking after your own or other people's health or tied up with work or ......

Of course you should be able to leave a horse on full livery without visiting it.
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I've certainly always assumed that 🤔
 
ycbm said:
What do you think people pay for full livery for? It's because they can't, or don't want to, take day to day responsibility for the horse.

You ought to be able to put a horse into full livery and trust it will be well looked after for you if you never see it from one end of the year to the next. It's not "hoping for the best" it's paying for a service.
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I agree that you should be able to leave a horse on full livery and it be properly cared for.
As I see it’s both parties have responsibility:
YO is responsible for the proper care of the horse.
Owner is responsible for oversight. If the owner becomes aware that the horse is not being properly cared for then they are responsible for resolving the situation (tell YO to buck up, and monitor closely, or move the horse)
As an owner you can’t become aware of mistreatment of your horse and do nothing about it.

The point to note is when the owner becomes aware of the issue. If you only visit once a quarter then that’s the earliest point at which they can act. If they visit every day then the point at which they are aware of neglect is much sooner. And so action can be taken sooner.
 
You should very much be able to leave your horse on full livery and trust the yard to look after it.

However, I have been in the situation where my horse was on full livery and he lost condition. I noticed it and immediately brought it up with the yard owner. Noticed she had dropped his feed and was feeding mouldy hay. Then bought more food and my own hay on top of the livery. Then brought it up again when lost more weight (this was purely a neglect on the YO part, nothing to do with something that was wrong with the horse). 2 weeks after the initial complaint I gave notice and moved that week. I did not pay because I did not have a signed contract and because the yard owner failed to rectify the situation.

In that circumstance then yes, don’t pay. BUT, there would have been plenty of yards to move the horse to, even if you needed to hire a freelance groom, if the neglect was that bad. I would never let my horses or any animal for that matter, get into such a state that they had a body score of 1.
 
I think it very telling that in your first post your first concern was money and the horse was second. Even when describing the horse there was no major concern evident - or furious anger or guilt……
 
You signed the contract to give a months notice, regardless of the care, (which you should have brought up before). So really you owe the money, as here you can leave before the month up but you pay the full month. The yard owner now has to find another livery, and it is only fair you pay for the 4 weeks in your contract.

I have taken several to small claims for not compiling with the contract.

It is always best to leave a yard on gd terms (sometimes it isn't possible)



Many bad paying liveries and bad y/o will soon create a reputation and the horse world is small. You don't want a reputation for not paying which could get around to a new yard you choose.
 
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